Kidani Village’s Pembe Savanna Opens September 1 with New Animals and New Challenges

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This debut marks the opening of the last phase of this Disney Vacation Club (DVC) resort. The final wing of Kidani Village will offer an additional 160 two-bedroom, savanna-view villas, plus windowed hallways to offer Guests clear views of the animals. Because of Pembe savanna’s unique location, it will not connect to the main savanna at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, making it exclusive to Kidani Village Guests.

Animals that can be found in this new area may include okapi, yellow-backed duiker, Red River hogs, nyala, impala, waterbuck, spur-winged geese and blue crane.

According to Animal Curator Greg Peccie, creating this new savanna required contributions from many different teams – including Animal Programs, Horticulture, Operations and Walt Disney Imagineering – that worked together to design, build and launch this new area into operation.

“The big deal is that this is all new,” Greg said. “First of all, we had to have a new barn, which was specifically designed to house okapis, the primary species. Okapis are more of a prestigious animal because people don’t often get a chance to see them. Having the opportunity to see them in a 6-acre, multispecies area is even more special. The fact that all these animals are out here interacting with one another – we have other wildlife professionals calling us [asking], ‘How do you do that?’”

In addition to the Guest villas and hallways, the savanna also can be viewed from Kidani Village’s Samawati Springs pool deck.

The debut of the Pembe savanna brings the total savanna acreage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani Village and Jumbo House combined) to 46 acres.